Steve, you must be right. This is what happens when you allow room for amateurs on the forum! I think I'll leave it though, unless anyone objects - if nothing else it's an example of how easy it is to misinterpret an image. I know that somewhere there is an image from The Children of the Planets that shows a magician-like figure complete with table, objects etc. - I'll try to find it.

Pen wrote:Steve, you must be right. This is what happens when you allow room for amateurs on the forum! I think I'll leave it though, unless anyone objects - if nothing else it's an example of how easy it is to misinterpret an image. I know that somewhere there is an image from The Children of the Planets that shows a magician-like figure complete with table, objects etc. - I'll try to find it.

Or could it be that our tarot magician is really a dentist...?

Pen

There are pertinent elements to tarot imagery I think; this image has been discussed before, I am not sure if it was here or over at AT, i'll try and track down a link.

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. T. S. Eliot

Thanks for the links Steve. It seems it may not be so much of a misinterpretation after all - all his accessories are there - but the name mountebank is perhaps less misleading than magician. I think this image is the closest I've seen to the tarot image.

Pen

PS. I think you must have added to your post while I was replying - yes bateleur, of course. And I found your interpretations of the other aspects of the mountebank's trade on the AT thread very clear and insightful.

Re. the monkey on the back of the Fool-like figure to the left of the mountebank, I googled the expression 'a monkey on his back' and came up with rather an interesting article that connects in different ways to tarot and the character we call the Magician.

Pen wrote:Re. the monkey on the back of the Fool-like figure to the left of the mountebank, I googled the expression 'a monkey on his back' and came up with rather an interesting article that connects in different ways to tarot and the character we call the Magician.

One thing in the Children image that I find particularly interesting is the hat on the table:

There is often a lot of talk about the Visconti magician, and what the object is on his table, and some suggest a hat. I think it is interesting that in this image there is clearly a hat on the table, and who does it belong to if not the bateleur?

The Tarot will lose all its vitality for one who allows himself to be side-tracked by its pedantry. - Aleister Crowley